More North Carolina Nonsense

Here’s a video of one of Pastor Worley’s parishioners trying to defend what he said –

What do you think? Am I being unfair when I say she doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what she’s defending or why? Nor does she seem to know what the Bible indeed says about the matter. She seems angry at Anderson Cooper’s questions – am I wrong in thinking that they seem fair, earnest, and not at all accusatory? It seems she’s angry that anyone would question the authority of her pastor. It seems to me that he’s just asking honest, fair questions.

Anderson raises a lot of the same issue that I mentioned in my post – 1200 strong congregation in support of this guy means he’s not someone on the radical fringe, why is homosexuality worse than adultery or other sins a literal following of Leviticus would lead us to some unpleasant conclusions, etc. – and brings up a few others. Yet this woman seems to think that the ‘mainstream media’ is making something out of nothing.

My main point here is not that homosexuality is right or that marriage should be re-defined. My main point is that there a lot of Christians who don’t have a clue as to what their Bible really says. They follow the priests and prophets blindly. This isn’t good for Christianity – and it’s definitely not good for democracy.

What do you think of this woman’s defense? If you agree with her – can you make a better defense of her ideas than she does? Would love to read your posts.

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This is painful to watch. I can’t even finish the video clip. This woman is so stupid she didn’t even have enough sense to say no to being interviewed. This church group is obvious hateful and ignorant. When I read your first post about this group it depressed me. It shows just how far America is divided. Back in the 1960s there was a common phrase, “the generation gap” to explain the divide between the young and the old. We now have a compassion gap. Conservatives hate so much that’s going on that it’s causing a great separation in this country. I find that very depressing.

I think you’re right James, and it scares as well as saddens me. I think churches like this one keep people down on the bottom end of the economic scale. It’s that same old trick the conservatives have been using since Nixon – you keep low-income, ignorant people from asking for better wages and education for their children if you tell them the real problems in the country are abortion, gay marriage, etc. That way the true elites (not the intellectual elites) get to continue running thing for their own benefit – AND they have lots of ignorant uneducated folks to use as cheap labor and cannon fodder for their wars.

these bigots are so sure of what they haven’t even read. this idea comes from towards the end of leviticus 18…the “don’t shag your relatives” chapter. it has to go into great detail on what qualifies as a relative(these people must have been going at it like caged rabbits), then almost as an after thought “oh yeah, don’t have sex with dudes or animals.” the next chapter goes on with very random transgressions(if that preacher was wearing a wool/cotton blend suit and had a medium-rare steak after church, he might as well be gay). my favorite is 19:20 about the ills of shagging a slave that you’re about to sell to someone else…punishable by death, unless ofcourse they haven’t paid yet. the whole book fo leviticus is rediculous really. the first few chapters sound like a picky restaurant guest ordering lunch, then goes on and on with what could be summed up with “if any human screws up, just slit an innocent animal’s throat.” insanity.

I agree with your point: History has shown countless times that forcible attempts to stem out behaviors (or sins) has not worked. In his book “A Renegade History of the United States”, Thaddeus Russell recounts the humorous anecdote of George Whitefield attempting to convert a tavern full of dancers on New Years Eve 1740 without success, the dancing resuming as soon as he went back to bed. While, as a Christian, I disagree with homosexuality, I also believe in the “live and let live” concept. This concept was also aptly expounded by none less than the Apostle Paul. In Romans 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.” (NET). “All” in Greek is πᾶς “pas” which has an exhaustive, all-inclusive connotation. What most Christians do not seem to understand is that “live peaceably” does not mean that we must or should approve of that lifestyle, but rather that adopting a confrontational attitude towards someone not of the same persuasion as ours is counterproductive to the desirable effects of the Gospel. In my opinion, this cuts both ways, for it also applies to those from the homosexual community that adopt confrontational or even insulting attitudes towards Conservative Christians; however, Christians are required to keep the high ground and not utter any rash word. By all means, that minister had a poor choice of words and images (which Anderson Cooper caught by comparing those statements to what happened the Holocaust), and his parishioner did an even worse job trying to defend something that cannot be defended. In my opinion, Jesus would not approve of homosexuality, but He would show compassion to anyone that came to repent, not rant about placing them in concentration camps.

George Jacob Holyoake

"Secularism is not an argument against Christianity, it is one independent of it. It does not question the pretensions of Christianity; it advances others. Secularism does not say there is no light or guidance elsewhere, but maintains that there is light and guidance in secular truth, whose conditions and sanctions exist independently, and act forever. Secular knowledge is manifestly that kind of knowledge which is founded in this life, which relates to the conduct of this life, conduces to the welfare of this life, and is capable of being tested by the experience of this life."